


Epilogue: Plan to Stay

by nagi_schwarz



Series: Marks [15]
Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: F/M, M/M, Soulmate-Identifying Marks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-05
Updated: 2016-06-05
Packaged: 2018-07-12 09:42:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,166
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7097323
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nagi_schwarz/pseuds/nagi_schwarz
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Written for the comment_fic prompt: "Stargate Atlantis, John Sheppard +/ Any, <i>Part heaven, part space / And have I found my place? / You can just visit, but I plan to stay / I’m going to go back there someday</i>" and the LJ Comm Story_Works challenge <i>Home is where the heart is</i>.</p><p>Jason Sheppard is leaving Atlantis, but he's not going home.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Epilogue: Plan to Stay

**Author's Note:**

> Story assumes the McKay/Carter Intergalactic Gate Bridge was repaired.

Jason was surprised but pleased to see Cousin Madison when he stepped into the Pegasus gate room of the Midway Station. She was standing beside her mother, who was deep in conversation with one of the gate technicians. As soon as Madison saw him, she excused herself from the conversation with her mother and came to greet him with a hug.  
  
Huhn. He was taller than her now.  
  
“Jason! No wonder you haven’t been answering my emails.”  
  
“Still doing the weekly databurst thing on Atlantis. No cell reception anyway. My iPhone’s basically an iPod Touch whenever I’m off-world.” He smiled at her. “How long have you been here?”  
  
“About half an hour.”  
  
“So we’ll both be here for about the entirety of our quarantine then.” Jason grinned. “C’mon. I’ll show you all the new stuff they’ve found in the city. I took video.” He reached into his pocket for his iPhone and waggled it meaningfully.  
  
Madison sighed. “I’m under strict orders to stick close to my mom the entire time I’m there. It’s, like, her fifth time on Atlantis already, and my second, but last time I was there -”  
  
“Torren unleashed yet another virus.”  
  
“Right. Besides, I don’t have the gene, and neither does Mom, so we can't control stuff the way you guys can. The Beckett didn’t take for me like it did for Uncle Mer. We both have boring Common Marks.”  
  
Jason resisted the urge to smooth a hand over his ribs. He’d managed to conceal his half-formed Mark from his father and Rodney. They’d never let him hear the end of it, that he thought Queen Harmony was beautiful. Granted, he’d never let Dad hear the end of it, that Queen Harmony liked Rodney much more than she liked him.  
  
“Meredith! John!” Aunt Jeannie spotted Rodney and Dad and strode to greet then, ruffling Jason’s hair as she passed. She did a double take. “You! You were shorter than Madison when I saw you last. What have they been feeding you on Atlantis?”  
  
Jason shrugged nonchalantly. “Touched an Ancient device I shouldn’t have. Now I’m biologically sixteen.”  
  
Aunt Jeannie came up short. “Really?”  
  
“No. I just hit a growth spurt.”  
  
Madison smacked Jason on the arm. “Don’t _do_ that. Now she’ll never let me out of her sight.”  
  
“Go to Atlantis enough times and she’ll relax,” Jason said. He watched Aunt Jeannie hug Rodney and Dad, try to smooth down Dad’s hair and straighten Rodney’s collar.  
  
Madison huffed. “Yeah, well, some of us aren’t special enough to spend every school break and summer vacation in Atlantis like others of us.”  
  
Jason didn’t spend breaks and vacation on Atlantis. He came home to Atlantis. Even now, he was itching with the missing of her, with the absence of her in the back of his mind where she was supposed to be.  
  
“Come on,” he said. “Let’s go get something to eat. They’ll be talking forever.”  
  
Madison nodded. “I heard they might have pizza.”  
  
The station mess commissary didn’t have pizza, but the burritos were passable. Jason turned on his phone and showed Madison the newest discovery on the city - a VR game room. He’d stumbled across it while he was playing hide and seek with Cousin Torren and Cousin Gabby. Uncle Evan had tracked them down after Gabby went missing for too long and he wanted to yell at her, but when he saw what they’d found, he ended up calling Zelenka and Rodney to come look at it instead.  
  
“That is so cool.” Madison sighed and rested her chin in her hand, watched Torren and Gabby duke it out in a virtual medieval jousting match. “I wish we had some of this stuff on Earth.”  
  
“I wish I could stay in Atlantis,” Jason said.  
  
Madison wrinkled her nose. “No way. I’d miss Earth way too much. Dad’s there. And all my friends are there. In two years we can get our driver’s licenses, and when we turn eighteen we can vote and go to college.”

Jason didn’t care about cars. He could already fly a puddle jumper. And he didn’t need college - he had Rodney and Zelenka and General Carter and the greatest scientific minds in two galaxies who loved to teach him. (He’d go to college anyway, because Mom and Dad and Rodney and Grant would kill him if he didn’t.) Back on Earth, Jason kept forgetting to use doorknobs, because the doors didn’t just open for him with a thought. He hated the way the house was silent, didn’t talk to him, didn’t let him know where Dad and Rodney were, that they were home and safe.  
  
Most of all, Jason missed the stars. Not even the most remote desert sky had the same stars as New Lantea. Jason knew the constellations of New Lantea like the back of his hand - the Satedan Warrior (after Uncle Ronon), the Guide (after Dad), the Hand (after Rodney), the Warrioress (after Aunt Teyla), the Ascended (after Elizabeth Weir - although Jason thought it looked like an octopus, which made Rodney laugh when Jason told him), the Setting Sun (for General Carter, who once blew up a star), the Sky Arch (a rainbow, for Uncle Evan), the Rising City (for Zelenka), and so many more.   
  
Jason had the next twenty-four hours to prepare himself for his time back on Earth. To remember to open doors with his hands, to use his words when he wanted something.   
  
But he would miss Atlantis, and he refused to say goodbye to her.  
  
“Also, check this out.” He searched through his other videos, then held his phone out for Madison to see once more. “Epic, epic water slide.”  
  
Or a giant improvised tube down the side of one of the towers, along a pier, and down into the ocean.  
  
Madison’s eyes lit up. “Oh my gosh, that is so high. You must be going so fast when you finally land in the water.” And then she sighed. “But I have no swimsuit.”  
  
Jason showed her another video. “The interplanetary market has expanded. You could probably buy a swimsuit there.”  
  
Madison pounced on the video with a squeal of joy, asked Jason to describe all of the vendors and stalls he could remember. She had to bring an epic souvenir back for her dad. She was pondering on a type of journal painted with Satedan inks or one wrapped in Wraith silk when Dad, Rodney, and Aunt Jeannie came to sit with them.  
  
“You ready to visit Atlantis?” Aunt Jeannie wrapped an arm around Madison’s shoulders and kissed her hair.  
  
Dad still did that to Jason, when no one was looking.  
  
Madison nodded. “Yes. They’ve done so much more cool stuff since we were there last.”  
  
Rodney yawned, flashed Jason a smile. “You ready to go home?”  
  
Jason shook his head. “No, not yet.” He glanced at Dad, who nodded. He understood. They’d already been home, and now they were leaving. But they’d go back. They’d always go back to Atlantis.


End file.
